If you haven’t sub’d to Disney+ or pirated The Mandalorian yet, I can share a funny observation without any real spoilers: among the many pieces of prop-junk the Jawas are scavenging in the show’s second episode are a pair of Volkswagen fuel rails, as spotted by an eagle-eyed Redditor.
This week spannerboy69 posted a picture of a TV paused at about the 11:40 mark of The Mandalorian episode “The Child,” while a hand holds up a car part matching the flute-looking thingie in the foreground in r/StarWars, and was rightfully lauded for their observational talents.
I watched this ep the other night but didn’t think to look at the Jawa junk closely. It’s pretty common for movies and shows to use random things as other things, but I only saw this after Jalopnik reader Chris shared the Reddit post in our Facebook group The Way Back. (You’re welcome to join that, by the way, as long as you answer the question that comes up when you do.)
The Redditor who made the original post mentioned “replacing dozens of these during a recall in 2013,” implying they’re a Volkswagen tech. VW for sure had a fuel rail recall that was announced at the end of 2014, which might have been what spannerboy69 was referring to, but it’s also possible there was an earlier one. We don’t need to tie up every loose end for a blog about giggling at the Jawas.
Regardless, a quick image search for VW fuel rails yielded close enough matches for me:
The Jawas are so relatable to me. I too often wear hoodies while driving a slow and enormous vehicle. I also get really excited about going to junkyards. Wow, yeah, I might actually be a Jawa.
But this isn’t about me, it’s actually about how impressive it is that somebody recognised a specific car part from a prop that got about three seconds of screentime. Spannerboy69, wherever you are, thank you for this moment of lowkey enlightenment.